There’s no ethical consumption under capitalism—even gummy bears aren’t safe—but I’d like to think most people try to eat ethically where they can. If you are one of those people, you should delete all those super convenient delivery apps on your phone.

If you’re like me, you jump at any occasion to go out to a fancy dinner. Valentine’s Day is a perfect opportunity; it’s not your birthday or anniversary, but you can easily justify a special meal with your significant other.

It is, ironically, difficult to have a pleasant date night on Valentine’s Day, when every “nice” restaurant replaces their normal menu with a mandatory and expensive prix fixe. Some couples actually like those dinners, and have a fun pre-packaged date night. Other couples like to cook at home, or to ignore the holiday…

For some reason I’m always the person in our group to make dinner reservations. I hate waiting in lines, so whenever my group of friends suggests we all head out for a meal I typically volunteer to make a reservation, more often than not through OpenTable where I earn 100 points for most of those reservations.

People like food, and people might like you more if you mention the right foods in your dating profile. According to data from one of the largest dating sites out there, these are the foods you should mention, and the ones you should avoid talking about.

The lemon wedge in your drink has a bad reputation, and the evidence for it seems obvious: No one at a restaurant washes the outside of a lemon, but then they throw that wedge onto your glass, sometimes letting the rind soak right in the drink. And according to HuffPost, several studies found all kinds of germs on…

The best reason to tip isn’t for yourself, but for the person you’re tipping. It’s a way to be nice, and sometimes it’s the only way the service worker can make a livable income. But as a side bonus, if you tip very well, you might get some good discounts, freebies, or special service.

My favorite casual dining restaurant in San Francisco is a Burmese place called Burma Love. I dream about this salad they make topped with fermented tea leaves, as do a lot of my neighbors, apparently. On most nights, the restaurant has at least a 45-minute wait, sometimes closer to an hour an a half. And they don’t…

I believe everyone should have to work in a restaurant at some point, just so they know what it’s like, but that’s never going to happen. So, let’s explain the lesser known ins and outs of the food service industry. If you work in a restaurant, or have in the past, what are some things you wish patrons knew that would…

For over a year now, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles director Dave Green and actor Joe Cobden have been posting increasingly elaborate 12-second video reviews to Yelp. Along with some friends, they’ve made 41 videos about L.A. restaurants, often using special effects, stunts, and stop-motion, that recall the golden age…

Even if you’ve got a major soft spot for the Olive Garden, no one goes to chain restaurants expecting a five-star dining experience. (And at this point you should expect things like frozen entrees and pre-made bags of soup as par for the course.) But the uniformity can also be comforting, and with a standardized menu,…

Diners were once the best places to eat. The food was decent, cheap, and the atmosphere was relaxed. And a big part of the fun was the colorful slang diner staff used to communicate with each other. Here’s what all those weird terms mean, hun’.

Really good, expertly made cocktails can cost a pretty penny, and I’m okay with that. What I’m not okay with, however, is paying fifteen bucks for an over-shaken beverage garnished with sad, dried-out fruit. Any bar can claim to make “craft” cocktails, but how can you be sure you’re getting what you pay for?

In my family, we had a no-restaurants rule for our kids for about two years. This is because they ate either at lightning speed—which meant one of us parents had to gobble too, and then take them outside to whack sticks on trees—or at a snail’s pace, which meant the closing waitstaff was turning up the air…

We asked you what local spots people should go to in your city instead of chain restaurants, and you delivered. We’ve complied suggestions for major metro areas so tourists stop going to awful chains and instead give their money to local places you love.

If you live in a city that attracts a steady stream of tourists, you already know (and side-eye) the chain restaurants that they tend to gravitate towards, even when there are perfectly delicious local options they could eat at instead—for instance, out-of-towners in New York flocking to the Times Square Olive Garden…

Kids menus. I can’t say I’m enthused when I read the selection of flavorless mac and cheese, plain pizza discs, and dry, white-meat chicken fingers, but I’ve accepted the options as part of the family dining experience—kids need to eat, and parents want to sit at a restaurant every once in a while and zone out to the…